By the Light of the Moon
Cindie Chavez ©2018
The past couple of weeks (couple of years, actually) have been exceedingly stressful for many of us. Notably for sexual abuse survivors, and people who support and love them (and believe them), the news of late has been almost unbearable, at times even unbelievable. It’s a heavy weight to carry. I’ve been inundated with emails and messages encouraging me to sign petitions, call my Senators, make contributions, make sure I’m registered to vote, and then of course to VOTE! I’ve taken these actions and I’m ready to vote – fired-up-and-ready-to-go ready.
My guess is that you’ve had a flood these messages in your inbox as well, and I want to encourage you to take these actions. We have the power to change things and we need to use that power.
And then, I want to encourage you to take care of yourself, and I’d like to suggest an idea that has been very important to my own sense of balance and well-being. Simply, to begin by bringing your awareness to the moon. (Did you see that coming?)
Living in alignment with the cycles of the moon has been the single most important thing I’ve done to order my life and take better care of myself.
I’ve learned so much by deliberately living in the flow of this cycle. Following the waxing and waning of the moon has taught me something that feels especially valuable right now during these very tumultuous times. I’ve been experiencing life’s “waxing and waning” on a whole new level. And, if nothing else, it is very encouraging to be reminded that everything has a cycle, a rhythm, a process – especially during a time when we are experiencing pain, and suffering.
There is a concept that “pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.” Life has painful moments – pain is inevitable. However, we don’t have to suffer, or at least we don’t have to suffer nearly as much as most of us do, if we realize that contrast can support us in changing things for the better.
Contrast – defined quite simply as “what we don’t want” – can actually be the best informant of what it is we do want – but so often we spend so much time resisting the contrast, fighting against it, complaining about it, fretting over it – in a nutshell: suffering – that we don’t use the contrast to its best advantage – namely recognizing the life-changing information the contrast is showing us quite clearly regarding what it is we’d actually like to create, and then focusing on that thing we want with laser-like attention.
Science has taught us that everything is energy, which means everything changes when we shift the energy in our experience – and the fastest way I know to shift energy is to get rid of tolerations. Sometimes this looks like clearing clutter (best done during the waning moon by the way) and sometimes it looks like reinventing relationships. Most of the time it looks like stronger boundaries, being willing to speak up about what we need, what we want, what we no longer find acceptable.
We get what we tolerate. And when we are constantly tolerating things we suffer.
Like the waxing and waning of the moon, life has an ebb and flow. The tarot has a card called The Wheel of Fortune. I sometimes inadvertently call it “The Wheel of Life” – because that’s what it always seems to represent to me. Life is a montage of experiences that cover the gamut of polarities – and just like the range of emotions we have – all experiences can be useful if we let them.
One of the seven hermetic principles is the principle of rhythm, explained in the Kybalion (a text of hermeticism) by the following quote:
“Everything flows, out and in; everything has its tides; all things rise and fall; the pendulum-swing manifests in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates.”
I find it encouraging to remember this principle of “pendulum swing” when things seem to have swung too far in one direction. A very useful thing we can remember is that there are no mistakes, there is only human experience. This one belief can radically shift your experience from one of huge “pendulum swings” to an experience that feels more even, more constant, aligned with the flow of life instead of wildly swinging from one extreme to the other (feast or famine) or swimming against the tide (constantly resisting what’s happening).
The way of nature is the way of least resistance. The contrast we experience doesn’t have to produce endless suffering but can be used to inform us of what we really want. Contrast is a messenger that heralds the way towards releasing tolerations and creating more well-being, more ease, more flow, more alignment – more magic.
The lunation cycle lasts approximately 29 days. A new moon, the first quarter moon, the full moon, the third quarter moon, and then…a new moon again – all in the span of 29 days.
Each of the moon’s phases supports specific actions we can take to move towards our goals, helping us balance our health, relationships, spirituality, creativity, even our finances. For instance, the “dark moon days” just before the new moon are wonderfully supportive for self-care, pampering, and introspection. The new moon is a great time to start something new, to begin a course of learning, or launch a creative project. When the moon is full it’s a great time to socialize and celebrate.
Each of the eight phases in the lunation cycle support us in staying with the flow of life – there is a time for simple quietude and a time for splashy party, a time to connect and socialize and a time to spend in contemplation, a time for dreaming and planning and a time for taking action, a time to acquire things and a time for letting go of excess.
We can take away a great lesson from this beautiful cosmic clock, the moon; life has an ebb and flow, as one cycle begins another ends, and then it begins again. The moon waxes and wanes, and the pendulum continues to swing. A new cycle is always right around the corner and living in alignment with this cycle brings a sense of order to life.
Considering the average lifespan will allow most of us at least 900 moon cycles, we can surmise that it’s never too late to begin living in alignment with this natural rhythm.
As the dark new moon waxes to a place of full bright illumination, I’m thankful for this constant reminder that even in the darkest times, the light will come again.
Cindie Chavez is known as “The Love & Magic Coach”. She is the creator of MOONLIGHT™ – A Course in Manifesting Love and the author of Healing for a Broken Heart. She has some great free stuff for you at her website: www.cindiechavez.com
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Cindie Chavez is known as “The Love & Magic Coach”. She is the creator of MOONLIGHT™ – A Course in Manifesting Love and she has some great free stuff for you at her website: www.cindiechavez.com
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